Conquistadors of the Sky: A History of Aviation in Latin America

[Varese2002]

There is a massive book coming end november 2008 from the University Press of Florida, from the expert author Dan Hagedorn. Book is ISBN 978-0-8130-3249-8, with a total of 616 pages (!). Pice is a very reasonable $ 39.95.

This is the blurb from the publisher

A primer on Latin Americans' contributions to aviation history

"A highlight reel of first flights, followed by a delineation of Latin America's place in the aviation world."--Gary Kuhn, University of Wisconsin, La Crosse

"Everyone concerned about the story of Latin American aviation will find this the most useful guide available. It tells the economic, political, and geographic realities of their history."--Ray Wagner, author of American Combat Planes of the Twentieth Century, and founder, San Diego Aerospace Museum

More than two years before the Wright brothers made the first controlled, powered, and sustained heavier-than-air flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903, Brazilian Alberto Santos-Dumont and his experimental dirigibles were celebrities above the boulevards of Paris. Today, Santos-Dumont's many contributions to powered flight are widely forgotten outside his native Brazil, where he is remembered as the father of aviation.

Santos-Dumont's story is not unique. Aviation developed so quickly in Latin America that by the 1930s air travel was more common there than in the United States. The contributions of Latin American pilots and engineers have been astounding and numerous, ranging from military aircraft to hot-air balloons. Now, for the first time, the rich and diverse history of flight in Latin America is presented in one highly readable, well-illustrated volume.

Coinciding with the opening of a new permanent exhibit, America by Air, at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, Conquistadors of the Sky celebrates the aviation achievements of twenty-one Latin American nations over the last 100 years--making this chronicle of heroic ventures and epic flights the best reference available on the subject.

Dan Hagedorn is senior curator with the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field in Seattle.

This volume was published in cooperation with the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

Cheers

Kees

[wacoavn]

If I am not mistaken, Dan was one of the on-staff researchers at Air & Space up until about a year ago. He was always very helpful when I was working in the research room. He had a book published in the past two years on air forces involved in Latin American conflicts that was very interesting and full if information I knew nothing about. This book in civilain aviation in Latin America is of particular interest because of my interest in WACO aircraft and the number planes they exported to Latin American countries.